In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
And I don't give a rats ass about the health care system. How about this: You smoke? No cancer treatment for you. Problem solved.

No, that wouldn't be right. When a smoker is found with an illness known to be caused by smoking his/her life should be forfeit for experimental medical treatments. That way, we can take the life you don't care about and make it meaningful in a painful way.

Smokers need to quit crying about not having freedoms. Killing people is illegal because we have deemed it, as a society, as taboo. So, when the majority finds something as wrong then there are limitations and or negative sanctions placed upon it. If the majority of society thought that smoking was okay, then smoking wouldn't be prohibited. That isn't the case, now is it?
In response to Kujila
hmmm....wonder how you make that listing.

Pros:
1: The government and establishments make one HELL of a lot of money off of cigs. If cigs were no longer sold....well the government will lose a good source of income.
2: You can make funny designs and styles of breathing out smoke, but you can do that with weed or something.
3: You know cigs don't always kill ya. If you're into living you don't have to die, it's all an option. If you like smoking AND living you can still balance them out.

Cons:
1: Everybody who DOESN'T smoke hates you for doing so. You get yelled at consistantly to stop.
2: Get cut off from your cigs and you go nuts and end up telling everybody within earshot you want a cig and you can't have one. (or go around asking)
3: Same as the other #3. Cigs don't always kill you. But uh....dude, do you really want a hairy tongue, a hole in your neck, a missing kidney and lung, breathing problems, cancer.....etc.?
4: Money. Dude, if you smoke a pack a day then you're pretty much paying for an extra meal a day except that meal....is smoke, not food.
5: You get pretty cocky from cigs. I mean if you're the one smoking, you spend your life looking at other people who have smoked longer than you and have died or are smoking through a hole in their necks and keep saying "That'll never happen to me."

...
...(i dont smoke)
...
Oh you don't always die from tobacco. Sometimes they just remove a lung! Oh you don't always die from tobacco. Sometimes they just rip out your tongue.
In response to XzDoG
XzDoG wrote:
I've never had smelly breath from smoking. Ever.

either your friends/partners are lieing to you, or your normal bad breath is over-powering the smoker's breath. :)
In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
Why don't you ban fast food while you're at it? Fast food kills even more people than smoking, and it takes away my freedom of not having to look at fat people!

People eat to stay alive, if a person eats normally for there life they don't get diseases from it but if you smoke "normally" well you're going to most probably get some sort of cancer and die a lot quicker. I can see that you are trying to compare two problems but smoking isn't neccesary for someone to be alive, it destroys your body and well I consider anyone who does it an idiot.

Stop trying to use free speech and the whole freedom argument to cover up the fact that cigarettes really do have major health risks.
I don't like to see things banned but when their risks outway any possible gains by 10 fold it just seems like the smart thing to do.

I can appreciate that you like to do what you like and im not saying it should be banned outright but considering you're putting yourself and others at risk it's plain inconsiderate.
In response to Data-Con
Data-Con wrote:
But you look so cool!

People say this, but I just don't agree. Personally whenever I see a guy smoking I don't say "oh, they look cool" - I just try to stay as far away from them as possible, because they stink.

Same goes for girls. I'll be walking along and hellllo, man she's hot! But then she lights up a cigarette. Ewwwww. Instant turn-off.
In response to Crispy
Crispy wrote:
Same goes for girls. I'll be walking along and hellllo, man she's hot! But then she lights up a cigarette. Ewwwww. Instant turn-off.

I fight that battle regularly. The tough part is deciding whether to pursue a girl who smokes a lot. Smokers can be good people, but smoking makes you selfish even if it's not otherwise in your personality or intentions. Once an addicted smoker needs a cigarette, it's more important than anything else in the room, and I have a hard time seeing my friends get pulled away from me by their bad habits.
In response to PirateHead
Smoking sucks, how on earth does it make sense to do something that you know will hurt you, personally I find no point to it if your having issues deal with them dont rely on "Cancer Sticks" to fix everything its just a waste of money also smoking is forbidden in some religions.

- Miran94
In response to Crispy
Crispy wrote:
Same goes for girls. I'll be walking along and hellllo, man she's hot! But then she lights up a cigarette. Ewwwww. Instant turn-off.

Smoking in Denmark is completely not cool. Even for teens. Not even smokers think its anywhere near cool, despite smoking themselves.

Smoking = Yellow teeth = Bad lungs = Bad stamina = Lower life expectancy = Ugly teeth complexion, lower performance in bed, less time in life. Thats the general consensus in Denmark for most young people, anyhow.

The only really valid argument I've ever heard about anything relating to coolness is that smoking makes it easier to approach people and talk to people because you instantly share an interest; but then thats never been an issue for me, so...
In response to PirateHead
PirateHead wrote:
Smokers can be good people


What the hell is that supposed to mean? Smokers aren't different people...
In response to Cavern
It wasn't meant to be an attack, or to be singled out from the rest of what I said. As a stand-alone statement, it would have read like this: smoking does not make one a bad person. (Thus, smokers can be good people. Similarly, gamers can be good people and farmers can be good people. Those statements would perhaps precede an objection on my part to an annoying habit of gamers or of farmers, as an admission that I do not believe their categorization makes them bad people.)
In response to Kujila
Kujila wrote:
No it really is with half of the "cliques" at my workplace.


Um, I highly doubt that. To be honest, the people who do think smoking looks cool, are people who have very low socializing abilities. You have to understand that smoking does not look cool, it never did and it never will. Nobody thinks it does. People just smoke because it is something to do. I used to smoke, but I quit due to reasons I mentioned before. Go up to a kid smoking in your workplace and ask if he thinks smoking looks cool. Chances are he'll just laugh at you so I suggest not doing it, but whatever.

I do not care if you smoke or not. I really don't. I just hate people who say it looks cool because it doesn't. It's just fun to blow smoke out of your mouth. I realized that the only times I smoked is when I was sitting around with my friends because no parties or anything was going on for the night, so we'd just light up some cigerattes. Other times I would smoke is when I was drinking or after I ate (those after-eating cigerattes were the best).

I read in another post that you only smoke 12 cigerattes a day now and that you are fine. Do you understand that you are going to become addicted to them soon? And that you will begin smoking over a pack a day? Because if you don't I suggest you stop smoking before you hurt yourself. I used to smoke one cigeratte a day. It turned into a pack or more a day. It got to the point where I would rely on cigerattes for everything. I would smoke when I was bored, after I eat, when I was stressed, feeling down, you name it. Even when I was happy, up and about partying with my friends I was smoking so much. It got to the point where I would pop up in the middle of the night coughing up flem and almost suffocating on it. I even coughed up blood a few times. I would weeze when I walked up the stairs. I just had to smoke the second I woke up or I would feel like crap the rest of the day. You get a feeling where you feel dirty and so unhealthy throughout the day. You will start coughing all day, everyday. The coughings will start to hurt. You may even cough up blood once in awhile. It gets to the point where you don't want to smoke anymore but you just have to. You can't stop it. If my grandma didn't die of lung cancer I wouldn't have found a way to quit smoking.


The long-term effects are not the only effects. The ones I mentioned will happen within a year.

Oh yeah, and I didn't even cut the tip of the iceberg with some of those side-effects I mentioned. So good luck.
In response to Crispy
Crispy wrote:
Same goes for girls. I'll be walking along and hellllo, man she's hot! But then she lights up a cigarette. Ewwwww. Instant turn-off.

Hmmm....well if you go after girls at all and you make guidelines of who not to date....going after ones who don't smoke kinda cuts off about 40%* of the population now doesn't it?

*random number.
In response to Evil-Inuyasha
Well, so what if it does? Should I be willing to date anyone, just to keep my field as open as possible? No, it's things like smoking that allow us to define who we want to be with.

I, too, find smoking to be very unattractive. I'm not saying that I wouldn't date a girl who smokes, but I highly doubt I would ask a girl out while smoking. And the dates I have gone on with girls who smoke I required that they didn't smoke in any small places we might be in(cars and restaurants mostly). I refuse to kiss a girl shortly after she has smoked(As even her lips hold the nasty taste of tobacco).

That is not to say I don't think people should have the right to smoke. I think it is their choice. But it is my choice not to surround myself with people who make that choice. If I ran a business, although I wouldn't refuse to hire someone because they smoke, I would refuse to allow them to smoke anywhere on business property. Including outside and in the parking lot.

But, I would never ask a bar to ban smoking. That is not my place. That is the place of the bar owner. If he thinks that the majority of his customers want a smoke free environment, he would want to let them have it.
In response to Vermolius
No, killing is illegal because if it wasn't then there would be no human decency. Not because we are all madmen cooped up in a cell of civil laws, but rather because a few people are. If he had no way for reprimanding people for killing others, except to kill them, then killing would not be seen as an issue, at least for those weak in humanity. One person, one madman, could kill hundreds, thousands, millions, and not be seen as doing anything wrong.

That is why murder is illegal.

Smoking affects one person(Possibly more, but I've never seen solid evidence that second hand smoking was all that harmful, but then, it's hard to filter out the diamonds when crap is being flung constantly). Perhaps it should be illegal, like driving fast. But then, I've never met someone who killed a small child with their cigarettes. I have, however, met someone who did it with alcohol.

I don't smoke. I find the smell repulsive. I choose my friends, partly, on if they smoke or not. But that doesn't mean I am for stripping the rights of others for their own "good". When we start making laws based on personal choices, when does it end? Should we outlaw loans, because many people put themselves in debt with them? Should we outlaw steak knifes, because people can kill themselves with them. Then again, loans and steak knifes have uses, smoking really does. How about video games. Should we outlaw them because they may lead to, or at least explain how to commit violence? I think we need to think more about if smoking is a freedom, protected by the right to choose, or a disease, needing a cure.
In response to Danial.Beta
Hmmmmmmmmmm shouldn't smoking be illegal because it a sort of murder in the first degree?
In response to Miran94
Murder in the first person, perhaps. But smoking doesn't always kill. I would love to see the statistics that say how many smokers there are, compared to how many people died because of smoking. Should we ban budgie jumping? Should we ban sky diving? These both have very high risks involved, and, if things go horribly wrong, can kill others than those jumping.
In response to Danial.Beta
Danial.Beta wrote:
I would refuse to allow them to smoke anywhere on business property. Including outside and in the parking lot.


No offense, but that is extremely stupid. Do you have any idea how hard it would be to hire somebody if that was the case? If you own a restaurant or whatever, probably all of the people who are going to get a job there are smokers. When they find out they can't have any cigarette breaks, well, there goes your business. Why can't they go in the back of the restaurant and light up a cigeratte? People will walk by your restaurant smoking, drive by in cars smoking, that smoke is going to your restaurant so its the same crap.

*EDIT: Hell, customers will be smoking outside before they eat and after they eat. If you don't let them your business is going down. Do you really think that daily smoker is going to miss out on his after meal stogey? That is the best cigeratte of the day and they will light up right after they walk out the door.
In response to DarkCampainger
"In the United States, an estimated 25.1 million men (23.4 percent) and 20.9 million women (18.5 percent) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke. "

"Cigarette smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death in the United States. It accounts for nearly 440,000 of the more than 2.4 million annual deaths."

"What about passive or secondhand smoke?

The link between secondhand smoke (also called environmental tobacco smoke) and disease is well known, and the connection to cardiovascular-related disability and death is also clear. About 37,000 to 40,000 people die from heart and blood vessel disease caused by other people's smoke each year. Of these, about 35,000 nonsmokers die from coronary heart disease, which includes heart attack."

And that's just deaths.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4559
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4545
In response to Cavern
Who said I would own a restaurant? I, personally, would never own a restaurant. And if I did, it would be smoke free all around. I would not, nay, I don't give smoke breaks. I was a supervisor, and I refused to let people take company time to go smoke.

There are laws, saying I have to give them breaks under certain conditions, of which, I obliged without problems, even if I knew they were just going to go smoke, but I wouldn't let them go off for 5 minutes, on company time, just to smoke. How is that fair to non-smokers? Can I go and spend 5 minutes drinking a drink outside? No, I'm expected to work while I'm on the clock, that simple. Why should smokers be treated better? If they claim smoking doesn't control them, why can't they go ~4 hours without one?

You may not agree with my choice, but you would always have the option to not work for me. If my choices mean that nobody who smoked would work for me, than so be it. If smokers are truly not slaves, like they claim, than this shouldn't be an issue, they can just wait till their shift is up to smoke, or go somewhere on their lunch that they can smoke. It isn't unreasonable, in fact, I would say my choices would be far more reasonable then letting some people go and do nothing, or worse, slowly kill themselves, while getting paid for it, and then go and make others work, who would do nothing but relax with a small break, work even harder to pick up the smoker's slack.
In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
including pneumonia (I'm a poster child of this, if you were wondering... damned lucky I didn't die).

You know what else causes pneumonia? Everything. It sucks you got pneumonia, but seriously, are you really that positive it was from second hand smoke? I have NEVER seen light second hand smoke harm anybody, and if you put yourself in a situation where there is heavy smoke, then that is your own fault. I have only heard vague references about it on TV because they don't have a shred of evidence.

Yes, it's my fault that as a four year old child, I had to live in the same house as a heavy smoker.

Are you even listening to yourself? People are saying you shouldn't smoke, and you're lunging at them and tearing out their throats. Maybe that should be an indication to an intelligent mind that there's something wrong with the habit; if it can cause that kind of addictive behaviour, just imagine how it'll be in a few dozen years when it's so thoroughly built up as a tolerance in your system that you no longer have the willpower to quit.
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